by23856

Although I am increasingly suspect of all of these products, this year I have done a very unscientific, but I believe a very realistic, test on two of the newer scent ‘elimination’ sprays. I subjected the X-Scent brand with its emulsified silver ions and the Dead Down Wind brand, with its enzymes, to the dreaded arm pit test.

I am not a scientist, nor the son of a scientist, and I did not sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night, but I do sweat and my armpits do stink. So, I figured since both of these products claim that they kill the bacteria that produces human odor, that I would test them on my pits in different ways. The first test was to be a post stink test, so I worked outside for a day with no deodorant on. Afterward I took the old whiff test with my own non-deer nose. Yep, both stunk about the same, as far as I could tell. So did my T-shirt at the same location. I sprayed one pit with X-Scent and the other with Dead Down Wind (DDW), and waited a few minutes. Both pits still stunk, with the X-scent one showing no sign of eliminating any of the odor. There did seem to be a slight difference with the DDW one, but only slight. Same results with the smelly T-shirt.

The next test was a pre stink spraying. I sprayed each freshly washed pit (with the HS scent elimination green soap) the next day with each product, using no deodorant again. This happened around 8:00 AM. At noon, after getting the kids ready for church, and as fate would have it, sitting in a warm church whose AC was on the fritz, I smelled my pits. Both had noticeable odor, but again, the DDW one smelled a little less than the X-Scent brand.

That’s it. Take from it what you will. As for myself, I am beginning to believe that my dollars will be better spent buying more tree stands and placing them so that I have a stand for every possible wind condition. Playing the wind seems more viable than most products ever will.

As a side note, last night I went out to one of my stands, wearing my rubber boots that have remained outside in a plastic bag, and were sprayed down with liberal amounts of Dead Down Wind before entering the woods, as were my clothes. A red fox comes trotting through the woods, hits my trail, puts his nose to the ground, and turns around and trots in a different direction. This is no big deal, by itself, except that it is the second time the same fox did the exact same thing. So, my deduction is that anyone who thinks you can move through the woods without leaving a trace of your passing to the wild critters out there are only fooling yourselves, IMHO.

PS. I will not enter into an argument with anyone on this, I’m just sharing my test for you to think about and perhaps test for yourself.

PSS. I also don’t buy into the carbon suit gimmick.

rush creek

i agree 100%. if a deer gets down wind of you he will bust you period end of story granted the air currents don't take your scent over the deer. last year i started taking a shower using regular soap, regular deoderant, and playing the wind. i do try to keep my rubber boots clean but agree that they will smell wherer you walked in as well on most occassions. owe by the way i took 5 deer w/ my bow. 2 bucks and 3 doe.

Mikey S.

May I make a suggestion? I learned a while ago to not store my rubber boots in a closed or sealed bag/container. My feet sweat alot, and I like to let my boots air out. Usually after a hunt they are damp inside, so I'll leave them outside if it's warm enough, or hang them on a boot dryer if it's to cold for them to dry. If I sealed that wet rubber boot in a bag, and let it set in there while it's damp with sweat, it's gonna stink. I've read and have been told that rubber is gas permeable, so what stinks on the inside, may eventually leak to the outside. And since there is no way to seal the tops of your boots to your legs in a foolproof fashion to keep the odor in for any amount of time, keeping them odor free on the inside is # 1 priority to me.....as far as footwear goes. Let them air out, sprikle some baking soda in there once awhile and empty it out occassionally. You may fool that fox...

Mikey

by23856

Thanks for the suggestion, Mikey. I used to do that but started storing them this year. I will still try to minimize my scent as much as possible, but I am not dropping a lot of money into any more.

buck knife

why all the hype about rubber boots then?

hoyt3

I do have the issue of sweating an awful lot, and as we all know that leads to odor. I am currently using hs scents anti persperant and I'll tell you, it works. ok, so I still sweat, but there is no stink. Not a bad way to spend three bucks.

AppleOnMyHead

Baking Soda.


End of post.

Mikey S.

I imagine it all started a long time ago with the hardcore trappers and carried over to the bowhunters. I could be wrong. But I still wear them, and I'm not trying to say they don't work or help in bowhunting situations. I'vespent couple seasons hunting without them also, and honestly, I couldn't see much different reactions in how deer acted when crossing my trail. If I get picked off scent wise, it'susually a deer that came in directly in my wind line. I cannot recall any deer crossing my path andbusting my scent on the ground, as long as I had on a relatively clean pair of boots(rubber or not)and pants.......at least any that were in eyesight of my stand that I could observe.

I wear them mostly out of convienence; easy to put on, I can walk anywhere, cross creeksand stay dry etc. However, I don't believe that if I switched back to my old Rocky Cordura boots, I'd stop killing deer at 10 yards. 6 of one, half dozen of the other I guess.

PABowhntr

Thank you for taking the time to go through the test. Though arguably nonconclusive I still think it definitely helps to compare the two products in question. Nice job.

Germ

Well I am not a scientist either , but I did a test also. I was on youth hunt with my best friends kid. I do were scent-lok from head to toe. Having met the owners of the company I truly to believe in the product. Back to the test, Jake ask me if my suit really worked. Jake I have to pass some gas stick your nose down buy my butt and I will let one rip. I did and Jake smelled nothing.
I think there is a lot of confusion about Scent-lok and other carbon suits. They do not "lock" your scent in. The Carbon acts as a filter, it filters out the order as it passes thru. This is why you need to put the suit in the dryer every 2-3 three weeks. It really does not Activate the carbon, it cleans the filters is a simple way to put it. The guys who invented Scent-LoK work with Carbon filters for Nasa on the space shuttle. These guys know what they are doing.
Last year will hunting after I shot a deer I climbed down my tree to retrieve my arrow. While getting my arrow a buck walk right up to me. He was about 10 steps away and was in Scent-lok from head to toe. He just walked around me at about 10 steps and went on with his business. The stuff works, it is not 100% but I have been using it now for 4 years and I would guess 95%-98% it works.